WASHINGTON - WASHINGTON — Pressure is mounting on the Interior Department to halt its plans to continue oil and gas leasing during a partial government shutdown now almost four weeks long.

House Democrats on Wednesday told the Interior Department to stop plans to bring back furloughed staff for an offshore lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico in March. Thursday, environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council, urged Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to stop all oil and gas lease sales.

"The administration cares only about the impacts on its favorite industry and not its workers, their families, and ordinary Americans," said a letter from the House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., and other Democrats. "If you refuse, we insist you that you come to Capitol Hill this week for a detailed briefing providing the legal justification for what appears to be a violation of the Antideficiency Act."

A spokesman for the Interior Department said officials there are "happy to meet with the Committee, as appropriate."

"We are confident that we are fully meeting our legal obligations," the spokesman said "We care about our employees, parks, public lands, and border security."

The call for action comes as the oil and gas industry has been allowed to operate relatively unfettered by a government shutdown that has upended industries from air travel to farming to defense contracting. Last week, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management made plans to bring employees back for an offshore lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico in March. The Bureau of Land Management, meanwhile, continues to issue drilling permits for federal lands — something the Obama administration did not do during the 2013 shutdown.

"American companies who operate in the offshore invest hundreds of millions of dollars in projects and need certainty to see these projects through," said Mallori Miller, senior director of government relations at the Independent Petroleum Association of America. "Preventing business as usual from continuing over a political fight that has nothing to do with our industry doesn't help anyone."

But continuing to allow new oil and gas leasing to continue could constitute a breach of federal law limiting government activity during a shutdown, the environmental groups maintain.

"Due to the partial government shutdown, the Bureau of Land Management lacks the necessary funds and staff to fully comply with applicable legal requirements, which include mandatory environmental reviews and 30-day public comment and protest periods," a letter from the group said.